Dr. Rachel (Kyllo) Schendel, FLBC Class of 2006
LEXINGTON, K.Y. — Free Lutheran Bible College alumna, Dr. Rachel (Kyllo) Schendel, is probing the frontiers of carbohydrate research, all through a biblical lens of faith and science.
“When you … have done enough experiments on a specific topic, you start to get a clear picture for what’s happening,” Schendel said. “You’re getting (it) into focus. Then, you get more and more information, and you realize that you are the first one in the world to bring this into focus.”
Schendel is an associate professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She and her husband, Dr. Isaac Schendel, have three young daughters.
As a Christian within science, Schendel’s view of research is distinctly biblical.
“Doing science is basically going and exploring the world God made, the things that He already knows,” Schendel said.
As she uncovers pieces of God’s creation Schendel believes that a Christian worldview and hard science walk hand in hand. In fact, prayer is a regular part of her workday as she asks God for ideas and a calm head for leading her laboratory.
When Schendel thinks back to her time at FLBC, she remembers learning a foundational truth about work and God’s calling: “It was at Bible School that I started to have my imagination more inspired that it could be possible to be serving God and doing something that you liked,” Schendel said. “This isn’t to say that God doesn’t call people to do miserable things sometimes, but it’s also entirely possible that God will call you to do something that He has equipped you to do—and that includes wiring your brain to be good at it and to like it.”
Schendel also gained a true knowledge of her standing before God at FLBC. “I stopped being afraid that God might not love me,” Schendel said. “I knew that we are saved by grace, but I didn’t rest in it until Bible School.”
“I stopped being afraid that God might not love me.”
Though Schendel was learning more about God’s view of her and her work, she still says she would have “laughed to the moon” if while at FLBC, someone had suggested she would one day have her current occupation.
Schendel and her research team focus on carbohydrates, specifically the makeup of dietary fiber within plant cell walls. Over her career, she has been published 29 times in peer reviewed journals and books. Her work helps scientists and nutritionists better understand, map, and categorize the carbohydrates in the foods used daily by humans and animals. This research has covered topics as diverse as the carbohydrate structure in kombucha, better utilization of distillery byproducts, digestibility and structure of pasture grasses over the growing season, hempseed fiber and digestibility for cattle consumption, and even how diet affects the composition of mare’s milk.
While Schendel’s team members do much of the physical research, Schendel’s work revolves around helping troubleshoot problems, thinking through follow up experiments, and getting the finished results polished for conference presentations and research journals. One of Schendel’s biggest joys is mentoring her graduate and post doctorate students and seeing them develop, as she calls it, “their own scientific chops.”
Schendel began to traverse the path towards her Ph.D. after attending FLBC. Her dad had encouraged her to pursue a bachelor’s degree, so she started taking nutrition classes. At the University of Minnesota, Schendel stumbled on her current occupation via a required class on carbohydrates.
“It lit this crazy fire of curiosity in my brain,” Schendel said. “I went home every night and studied and studied and studied. I memorized everything and looked up all of the mechanisms. I thought it was the most fascinating stuff that I had ever heard of.”
With her new-found passion, Schendel decided to pursue a master’s degree at UMN. While doing so, her faculty advisor announced he had accepted a new faculty position in southwest Germany and invited her to do her Ph.D. there.
In 2016, Schendel graduated with her doctorate in food chemistry from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and started her career back in the U.S. at the University of Kentucky in 2017. This summer, Schendel received tenure.
“I have this tremendous sense of excitement and this endless sea of possibilities for future research projects,” Schendel said.
In all her work, Schendel keeps her faith close at hand. She believes that prayer for work is not something God reserves for those in religious vocations. Instead, regular prayer is part of how she functions at UK, whether it is wisdom for how to fix a broken instrument or what projects to prioritize.
“Daily life in the lab is full of unexpected challenges or hurdles,” Schendel said. “I pray and ask God for help, because He tells us we can pray and ask Him for help.”
Approaching the laboratory as a space for discovering God’s secrets, Schendel works as one who has been equipped “for a life of faith in Jesus Christ and faithful service in His kingdom.” Because of her time at FLBC, Schendel knows that her standing is secure in the eyes of her Savior, and that doing the science He wired her to enjoy is an endeavor worthy of her exertion.
Share this Post